DEFENCE HANDGUN
Picking the Right Fodder
THROUGH the years I’ve endured many arguments about the best defence pistol, interestingly mostly with Glock owners who noticed I wasn’t following the polymer striker-fired craze. I’m happy with DA/SA pistols and for me they work well. However, the question arises why gun owners will debate the pros and cons of pistols but rarely touch on carry ammo.
This is puzzling, as a Glock’s on-target effectiveness when shooting at flesh and blood is only dependent on shot placement and bullet performance. The brand of pistol makes little difference. Most modern handguns, polymer or not, are extremely reliable, accurate and easy to shoot. So, the question is less about which pistol to choose, and more about your carry ammo. Does it feed flawlessly in your handgun from the first to the last round in the magazine? How good or bad is the on (or in) target performance? (You can use ballistic gel test results to at least get an indication.) Is it accurate enough in your firearm for defence purposes? Is the recoil controllable enough for fast follow-up shots? Can you afford to practise with the ammo and, is it freely available locally?
Through the years I’ve tested several factory handgun loads and used thousands of handloads, and as a result, have learned a few lessons about ammo choice along the way. Remember, this is my opinion, and if you beg to differ you are welcome to share your experience with us via email. I’ll also restrict my comments to the 9mmp as this is the most popular defence round.
Firstly, I prefer factory carry loads to handloads because during the last 30 years I’ve experienced almost no problems
with factory ammo. I can recall one misfire (I had a light primer strike), and bullets moving deeper into the cartridge case during prolonged carry in the magazine. With my handloads, I’ve experienced misfires and malfunctions like a cartridge not feeding, slide refusing to go back into battery, slide not cycling a round due to the powder load being too light... the list goes on. The point is, my handgun reloading equipment cannot compete with modern factory precision equipment no matter how carefully I assemble a round.
If you do choose to reload for defence you’ll want to use JHPS or some modern monolithic expanding designs. Peregrine and Advanced Shooting Products are two local manufacturers that produce monolithic expanding handgun bullets. We’ve tested both bullet types in ballistic gelatine and their performance was impressive.
Choosing the right carry factory load can be a daunting task as the range available is staggering – and even more so the price. Also, a salesperson will probably try to sell you what they have in stock, not necessarily what you want, so it pays to shop around to find what you really ‘need’.
Price plays a role too. Winchester 9mmp 147gr Ranger Bonded ammunition will set you back R1 649 per 50 rounds. On the other end of the spectrum S&B 115gr JHP or PMP 115gr JHP ammo will probably cost you less than R400 per 50. We’ve tested all three and all performed very well in our gel. The heavier Winchester bullet penetrated deeper, but that is to be expected. So, if you are on a budget, the S&B and PMP ammo is a good choice that performs on par with much more expensive ammunition. The PMP penetrated on average 2 inches deeper than the S&B with expansion at 13mm for both. Our conclusion was that the S&B might have a softer lead core compared to the PMP.
In our ballistic gel test (4 pieces of denim and a block of gel) we’ve been trying to compare the performance of different loads in the same medium. This is not a scientific test, but I found that most factory defence loads performed more or less to the manufacturer’s claims. The aim being to adhere to the FBI’S standard of duty ammo to penetrate between 12 and 18 inches in ballistic gel. Bullet expansion should also be consistent to ensure reliable penetration and a large wound channel.
To double-check our own results, I cross referenced with www.luckygunner.com (search for lucky gunner handgun ammunition ballistics test in your web browser), and I only compared ammunition locally available.
Good choices are Hornady’s 115gr Critical Defence (penetrating 13.1 inches, expanding to .5 inches, 1 143fps, R499/25) and Critical Duty 135gr +P (if you need more penetration: penetrating 18.1 inches, expanding to 0.47 inches, 1 118fps, R539/25). My favourite, however, is Magtech Guardian Gold 115gr JHP +P, which at 1 175fps penetrated 15.2 inches on average and bullets expanded to .56 inches on average. Available at Safari Outdoor for R219 per 20 it makes a lot of sense.
Moving up the price range, excellent ammo to consider is Federal Punch and Hydra Shok, Remington’s Golden Saber range, Speer Gold Dot, and Winchester Ranger ammunition. I would ignore the +P+ ammo as you simply do not need the increase in velocity and recoil.
Sig Sauer’s 124gr V-crown ammunition is my overall choice. It performed very well in our own and other tests. At 1 072fps it penetrated 17.3 inches of gel and bullets expanded to .52 inches. Selling for R300 per 20 it is well worth considering. I do not carry Sig ammo in all my magazines, only in the mag in my pistol. The rest of the rounds are the more affordable S&B JHPS, which feed just as reliably as the Sig ammo, have the same recoil and shoot to the same point of impact at the distances at which I practise.
In conclusion, I’d rather use the more affordable ammo, like S&B, PMP or Magtech Guardian Gold as a carry load as I would be able to fire a few shots at the range every once in a while, rather than carry ultra-expensive ammo which I cannot afford to shoot at the range. My range handloads (which are never used for defence carry) are normally assembled with close to minimum powder charges to extend the life of my firearm, but I have started loading some to replicate the recoil of my carry loads, which means I need less factory loads for practise. I also tend to fire the factory carry loads towards the end of range sessions to ensure feeding is reliable even out of a dirty pistol.
Whatever your choice, remember that shot placement is the deciding factor. So, practise regularly to get shots on target rather than spending time on solving the conundrum of which defence ammo or pistol to pick.